NO. 3 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT PARAGONAH JUDD IQ 



Rio Colorado. Decorated jars and ollas were obviously rare, but 

 bowls carrying the customary black decorations over a gray interior 

 wash were plentiful. On these latter are figured many of the 

 geometric patterns common to the northern part of the prehistoric 

 Pueblo area ; only one shard has been noted which carries a repre- 

 sentation of an animal. However instructive a comparison of the 

 earthenware vessels from the two regions might be it again seems 

 advisable merely to affirm the similarity in design and leave for a 

 future paper detailed consideration of the western Utah pottery. 



An examination of these Paragonah fragments discloses one 

 peculiarity of ornamentation which is too often repeated to suggest 

 mere accident. This is the interlineal use of red paint, superficially 

 applied. The black decorations were painted directly upon the 

 kaolin wash and were permanently fixed when the specimen was fired. 

 Some of these, however, especially bowls with encircling bands, were 

 further ornamented with red ochre and this almost without excep- 

 tion was drawn between the black lines some time after the vessel 

 had been removed from the kiln. The red paint, not being perma- 

 nent, is readily removed by rubbing, but its decorative effect remains 

 unquestioned. Plain-ware bowls and jars and even coiled ollas were 

 sometimes covered on the outside with a thin coat of this same pig- 

 ment, producing results which, in general appearance, approach the 

 unpainted red ware of the Little Colorado drainage. Judging solely 

 from the shards collected, earthenware vessels decorated with red 

 before firing were extremely rare in the Paragonah region. 



Besides the usual objects.of bone, stone, and pottery, a number of 

 less common artifacts were recovered from the big mound. Perhaps 

 the most interesting of these is a tubular stone pipe, figured in plate 

 15. The original, now in the University of Utah Museum, is of 

 agalmatolite, or possibly serpentine. It is of the well-known Cali- 

 fornia type and undoubtedly reached the Parowan Valley through 

 inter-tribal commerce. 1 The typical Utah pipe if a type can be 

 determined from incomplete investigations is of clay and varies 

 between numbers 303177 and 303179, plate 15. Short tubular pipes 

 with flaring lips have been found in widely separated localities ; clay 



x That materials and artifacts prized by primitive peoples were frequently 

 transported almost incredible distances is a fact well known to anthropologists. 

 Several dozen beads made from Pacific coast shells (Olivclla biplicata, Sby. 

 and Olivella dama, Mawe), were found in the "big mound " and indicate that 

 the difficulties of a foot journey across the Nevada and California deserts were 

 not insurmountable. 



